Balta1701

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 8, 2011 -> 02:48 PM) So who is going to let me berate them at work to test out and see if this theory holds any water? I'm game.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Aug 8, 2011 -> 02:41 PM) Either way, the Hudson/Jackson trade was bad. However, KW would then deserve credit for the Jackson/Teahen for Frasor/Stewart swap. There you go. He gets a good middle of the rotation starter, relief help, and clears $10 million out of Jackson when he has 2 months left on his contract? That's a great move if Stewart can pull that off. Hell, it's a good move even if Stewart does very little.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 8, 2011 -> 02:29 PM) Why does Rios have better numbers at home if he's getting booed? Because his numbers are dominated by the last 2 games?

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Aug 8, 2011 -> 02:31 PM) So if Stewart ends up as good or better than Hudson the initial trade would still bother you? Yes.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 8, 2011 -> 02:13 PM) Well, if PK has been calling out players in private, it has never, ever been mentioned by anyone. Which is exactly how it should be.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Aug 8, 2011 -> 02:06 PM) No, but there can be a nice middle ground. It seems to me that Konerko has the same mindset as the management and front office of just waiting it out. Remember when it was said that Konerko/Dye/Thome told KW to not make any moves and that the team was fine when a move or two would've obviously helped the team? A good captain would say what was necessary, and he would get into someone's face for lack of hustle and such. Konerko himself doesn't even seem to hustle that much, but he might just be that slow. I really don't think that Konerko is the kind of guy that would pull another player aside to chide them, but more of just a nice guy that nobody has a problem with. A good captain would call out his players for struggling in front of the GM or in front of the media?

QUOTE (Melissa1334 @ Aug 8, 2011 -> 01:58 PM) so u have to be a loud mouth like peavy? lol Yeah, we have no other loudmouths in positions of leadership on this team.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 8, 2011 -> 01:52 PM) My answer would be that it honestly doesn't matter. When you have been out of contention for as long as a team like KC in 03 or the Pirates of this year, you don't get many chances to win. When you do, you owe it to your fans to try to win. Waiting for three or four years down the road is a terrible idea, because odds are that it won't be working then either. Winning today is the one chance that a franchise like Pittsburgh has of putting themselves back on the road to respectability. Not winning in 2015. So, I ask specifically, "Did KC have a legitimate chance to compete in 2003" and you answer "It doesn't matter but they should try anyway". If they don't have a legit chance, then how foolish is it to dump everything to try?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 8, 2011 -> 01:38 PM) they sure weren't after they didn't nothing to seize the day. Fast forward to 2011 and they are still waiting for a winning season. And I'll note, you didn't answer the question.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 8, 2011 -> 01:29 PM) Yeah, I don't know anyone who served in Vietnam. And none of us do either, clearly, as no Liberal can possibly be related to a serviceman. You however were the one who switched to the first person there and said that you were spit on. (Yes, I know what you were doing. But there's a big difference between everyone here arguing over hearsay from 40 years ago and actually having personally been there)

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 8, 2011 -> 12:01 PM) Let me put it this way, do you think the Royals regret not taking advantage of 2003? Do you think the Royals were legit contenders in 2003?

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 8, 2011 -> 12:32 PM) I don't like the constant bellyaching about it, but I do enjoy keeping up with Hudson's exploits in Arizona. Let me ask this question though...how would we all feel about this deal and the series of deals that have recently occurred if Stewart ends up being similar in effectiveness to Hudson? If Stewart comes out and gives us a sub-4.00 ERA as a starter in a year or two, then I'd still hate this trade, and I'd count Stewart for Jackson and Teahen as one of Kenny's biggest trade wins.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Aug 8, 2011 -> 12:56 PM) Hayden would be a very nice addition to the Bears. I have very little trust in our CB depth, at the moment. The DB's seem like the only position the Bears haven't yet addressed with any help this offseason.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 8, 2011 -> 01:11 PM) Soldier #1: I was spit on when I returned from Vietnam. Liberal #1: No you weren't you imagined it or exaggerated it. Nope, looks to me like they are being called liars. Oh, I see, so you were a Soldier in Vietnam. I'm sorry to hear that you had to go through this.

Evidently, science disagrees.

If we want to have a fair and honest conversation about this...were soldiers coming home from Vietnam treated poorly? Of course. Especially by the government itself, it would appear to me. Are there exaggerations in most of those discussions? If you actually look at the number of stories, there'd have to be armies of blonde-haired hippies hanging out at airports and hunting down homes to make them actually fit with the descriptions. The bigger question is whether we're going to draw a bigger conclusion from these anecdotes...am I trying to allege that the soldiers are en masse liars? Of course not, I'd instead argue that it's a symptom of a larger problem...a complex war we shouldn't have been fighting. But here's the other side...why does this topic get brought up in the first place? It's brought up as a political attack, to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that liberals don't care about the military because how could anyone treat a soldier like that...and that of course is the point that is far more disagreeable. For it to be an effective smear, it has to be rampant, organized, an official act that poisons an entire set of political beliefs.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Aug 8, 2011 -> 10:52 AM) Well, ok, I'll throw it back at you. If there's nothing wrong with him tweeting that, there's really nothing wrong with him receiving backlash with factual information from Oney. And if you look upwards in this thread, you'll find me saying "This seems unusually tame for Oney".

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Aug 8, 2011 -> 10:49 AM) "Who's running that team?" Come on, that's just disrespectful. Had he said "Ozzie Guillen isn't doing a great job with that roster" then there's nil issue. Is it unusually disrespectful for a sportscaster though?

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Aug 8, 2011 -> 10:44 AM) Honestly, Valentine's tweet is the issue here. Ozzie at least has a World Series title, and Bobby Valentine clearly called him out with his tweet. I know it's the flavor of the millennium to rip on anything Oney Guillen, but in this case Valentine needs to be more diplomatic, given he's not just some nutty sportscaster, he is a former manager of the game. You just don't talk about other managers like that... there's a code. If Valentine wasn't already blackballed from the league comments like this will cement that status. That really doesn't strike me as anything excessive from Valentine given his job as a sportscaster.

The plunge on Treasuries really is getting impressive.

QUOTE (MuckFinnesota @ Aug 8, 2011 -> 10:41 AM) That's true. I was exaggerating the point that the Bears should remain on the lakefront. Outside of the grass, I don't see much of a problem with Soldier Field. Most people like the old look of the stadium with the new additions inside. I hate the look of the stadium and think that is by far the biggest mistake they made, worse than the turf issues.

That seems unusually tame for Oney.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 8, 2011 -> 10:05 AM) They could have brought in most of the top names available on the market, and they still would have been behind Milwaukee. The funny thing is that the Pirates pitching is what has killed them the last two weeks, and that was one spot where they weren't going to try and upgrade. As I'm sure you've seen, even really good pitching has a down-spell that can spin a team into a losing streak. That's where a bat can bail a team out. That said, the Pirates goal this year should be to try to hit .500. That'd have been a huge success for them with where that team is at.

Wasn't the same thing true last year as well?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 8, 2011 -> 09:48 AM) Not if they brought in accomplished players to try and compete. With the prospects they have, they could have outbid most for the big names out there. But I'm not sure that there was a big name even deserving of their guys. If they'd gone after Hunter Pence, Quentin, Jiminez, etc., they'd have had to give up a ton for guys who probably wouldn't put them over the top this year, and who they couldn't have afforded to keep for more than a year or two.